Scumbag of the Year

I know it's real early in 2011 to award scumbag of the year to anyone, but this guy meets the qualifications.

The guy, who went by the name Dylan Sorvino from New York on Facebook, apparently appropriated the photo of a deceased soldier for his Facebook page and began courting women.

It was only after someone who knew the deceased soldier, Sgt. Roberto Sanchez who was killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2009 after five tours of duty, found Sorvino's page and Sanchez's comrades confronted him online that Sorvino took down the page:

The real soldier's comrades and women who experienced the ruse say the Internet lothario, who claims to be fictional New Yorker "Dylan Sorvino," hijacked the memorial photos of Sgt. Roberto Sanchez, a strikingly handsome 24-year- old US Army Ranger killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2009 after five tours of duty.

Sorvino posted the tragic photos of the square-jawed Special Forces soldier as his profile pictures on Facebook and then passed himself off to women he e-mailed as an all-American hero who grew up in the Big Apple, studied law and then enlisted in the Army to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sanchez's heartbroken family was alerted to the scam days ago by a woman who stumbled upon photos of Sanchez on a military Web site and recognized him from Sorvino's Facebook page.

"This guy went on the Ranger battalion Web site looking for a fallen soldier to use," said Sanchez's mother, Wendy Holland.

"My son died for this country. How can anyone do that? It's so heartless."

Sanchez, 24, a Florida native, was killed on Oct. 1, 2009, when an improvised explosive device detonated as his unit drove over a bridge. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

Sorvino -- who deleted his Facebook profile immediately after Sanchez's furious comrades confronted him online Thursday -- would play poker through Facebook and invite female players to be his "friends." He then wooed them into cyber-affairs with fabricated tales of glory, victims said.

I have zero tolerance or respect for anyone who impersonates a soldier, and this guy purposefully used the photo of Sgt. Sanchez to appear to be someone who he clearly wasn't.

I'd love to see his true identity revealed so that he can be prosecuted to the fullest extent under the law. 18 USC § 702 provides a prison sentence of up to six months for impersonating a soldier. Sorvino's actions appear to fall under that statute, although fraud is another possibility.